Open Meetings and Public Records Laws

Wisconsin has a long history of recognizing public records principles. The state’s first statutes, compiled in 1849, treated the official papers of many public offices as belonging to the office rather than the particular officer. Those statutes also provided a public right to access some offices’ governmental documents. The state’s commitment to public records eventually led to a single, unified Wisconsin public records statute in 1917. This issue brief discusses certain public records provisions from the state’s 1849 revised statutes and two early Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions from the late 1800s interpreting the public’s right to access governmental records.

This issue brief provides a summary of the common steps performed when responding to a public
records request. It is not a detailed treatment of the Public Records Law, ss. 19.31 to 19.39, Stats. An
overview of the statutory framework of the Public Records Law is provided in Legislative Council
information memorandum, IM-2020-19, The Public Records Law.

In Wisconsin, meetings of state and local governmental bodies generally are required to be
preceded by a public notice, held in places reasonably accessible to members of the public, and
open to all citizens at all times. These openness requirements, and the processes for ensuring
compliance with them, are commonly referred to as the state’s “Open Meetings Law.”

In Wisconsin, any material on which information is recorded or preserved by a state or local
governmental body, including an elective official, generally is considered an open “record;” and
any member of the public has a right to inspect it, unless a provision in the law allows it to be
kept confidential. These openness requirements, and the processes for enforcing them, are
commonly referred to as the state’s “Public Records Law.”